[HesterF]

Ironically the biggest challenge for us having a pellet boiler (beyond the money) is the pellet silo. It needs to be 15m3 roughly and we're going to dig in down into the ground by a metre or so so it needs to be completely waterproof. I'm waiting on our heating/plumbing engineer guy to get back to me but he's taking forever so any suggestions about where I can start looking? Am just getting a bit fed up of waiting - we've had the planning permission for two months but can't do anything until we sort out the plan for heating.

Thanks,

H

[Whistlin]

Our silo is a 4tonne one, based inside a barn. Basically a sack suspended from the structural metal supports. We also looked at stand alone silos that would sit outside; there are plastic silos that sit on the ground that look good, and also there are companies who manufacture wooden clad cubes.

Our installer gave us a range of options. Whole set up works extremely well, and we're very pleased with it. Definitely worth persevering!

[spandit]

Can you give details on your boiler and pellet cost, please?

[Whistlin]

We pay £190 a tonne for pellets, and the boiler is a Gren 40kW. It replaced an existing LPG boiler.

[HesterF]

Thanks Whistlin. Given up on digging it down now so it'll sit above ground and I think we'll have it custom built and insulated by the builders. Ours needs to heat our house, a holiday cottage and at least two other outbuildings so it will be bigger than yours at 60kW so the silo needs to be a bit bigger too - i think 15m3 is about 6 tonnes? We did wonder about having it inside an outbuilding and have one that would work but it's set too far back from the road so we can't get the pellets blown in. I believe they can't blow them more than 20m on delivery without them starting to degrade? So many factors to consider. It's good to hear that they're out there working - we're hoping to visit one at some point but it feels so unusual, I worry about us being left with no techincal support to help in times of trouble.

[Whistlin]

It will feel unusual; but for every thought you have that you are the only one doing this, there will be another thought that essentially all you're doing is burning wood, and that really isn't new.

I got to the stage of looking at the kit, thinking how sleek and complicated it all looked, and then reminding myself that the pellet suction was provided by a stripped down vacuum cleaner, and the pellet igniter was a B&Q heat gun! It really is very old technology that has had some buffing up for the 21st century. The clever stuff is probably the insulated piping that you sink into the ground (it had better be clever, given how much it costs!).

You are bound to have teething problems, but provided you factor those into your expectations and have a good (and enthusiastic) installer all problems are fixable, and it's huge fun (no, really) watching it all come together.

[HesterF]

I like the look of them and the idea of being oil free. It's mostly the start up costs and the fact that the only way it'll ever pay is based on the government RHIs. So if they decide to change government policy halfway through installation, we're f*****! And even if they don't, we still have to postpone other building work to do it - things like all my children having to share a bedroom for several more years rather than having the option of their own rooms next year. I know it makes sense over 20 years and I think it makes sense for the planet (although I keep hearing about the pellets being sent over from the US which kind of invalidates the zero carbon argument), it's just whether that's enough....

H

[spandit]

I've seen some interesting videos on YouTube with people making their own pellets but to get a tonne would take quite a while...

[Small Plot Big Ideas]

I've just been looking into this sort of thing recently as well as other options for renewable energy

The estimate I got for a log/pellet boiler (incl pellet storage) was around £28-30k +VAT so I'm not sure we have the funds for it if we also consider solar PV or thermal. It was interesting to see the calculations that said that pay back via the RHI would be around 5-6 years though!

I'd love to replace the existing oil boiler but unfortunately there are just so many other things I would like to spend the money on so I'm not sure...

[HesterF]

Yep, our boiler quote is £40k not including the pellet store and a few other heating related bits and pieces we'd do at the same time so the total bill would be in the region of £60k. Pay back with RHIs is about 8 years (still seems odd that the more pellets you use, the more money you make - I'd have the house constantly at 25° and I'd make more money). Would never pay back without RHIs - would probably need another new boiler before the payback. We do have to replace our boiler anyway - our current one barely heats our own house, let alone the holiday cottage and outbuildings we want to add on to it. So I have to make a decision - just a hard one!

Oh, and no way am I making 12 tonnes of pellets a year by hand!

H